Rangers' Mystery
by Lianne Yoffa
Summary: When a girl is discovered spying on the Rangers' Gathering, What happens? Who does she work for? And how will Will, Halt, and the rest react to her? I know, I know, a female Ranger-like OC isn't the most original idea, but I model most of my characters after myself and give them canon traits usually.
1. Chapter1-Mystery

Will rode Tug slowly toward the Gathering Grounds. So far, he hadn't seen Halt or Gilan, so he was giving them time to catch up. He had come early so he could go a ways up the trail before them and catch them unawares if they hadn't caught up with him yet. He decided to wait a while longer before finding somewhere to ambush them. He was making small talk with Tug when he heard something. It wasn't a natural sound, more like… metal. Metal scraping against metal somewhere to his left.

"Stop," he whispered softly to Tug. The horse complied. Will silently dismounted and made his way to the trees where the noise had come from. He heard something different, like someone shifting in the undergrowth. The sounds were coming from behind a large tree.

He came up to it, and got ready to go around to see who was there. He never got the chance. Right before he went around, someone came up next to him. He looked, but all he saw was a pair of light gray-blue eyes and an arm coming up behind his head with something hard. There was a solid impact, and everything went black.

Halt and Gilan rode next to eachother companionably. Will hadn't been at their usual meeting place, and they had come to the conclusion that he must be planning to ambush them somewhere ahead. They were nearing the place where Halt and Will had ambushed Gilan during Will's apprenticeship when Gilan stood up in his saddle, peering ahead.

"What is it?" Halt asked.

"I think… I'm not sure, but it looks like a horse to the side of the trail, leaning down toward a… lump." Gilan replied.

"A lump of what?"

"I… can't tell. Maybe we should speed up." Gilan tapped Blaze's sides and the horse sped up. Halt followed at a more leisurely pace.

Gilan dismounted and gasped loudly. "It's Will!" he exclaimed.

"What's Will?" Halt came up beside Blaze and dismounted as well. When he looked at the unidentified lump, he recognized Will. Both Rangers looked around to try and see what could have caused Will to be crumpled unconscious on the side of the path. There was a trail going off into the trees a little ways. It looked like someone had dragged something heavy through and deposited it near the trail. The heavy something being dragged had most likely been Will, but there was no sign of whoever had done the dragging.

Halt leaned down next to Will, examining him for some sort of injury that would knock him out. There was a tiny spot of blood on the back of his head, as if he had been hit by something hard. Halt turned to Gilan, "You go find the tracks of whoever did this, and I'll try to wake up Will. Maybe he can tell us what happened."

"Right." Gilan went to examine the ground for tracks of some kind.

Halt gently shook Will, to see if he would wake up. Nothing happened. He decided to switch to less gentle methods, getting his water canteen from his saddlebag. When he poured this on Will's head, the younger Ranger spluttered and sat up.

"What- who?" he said, then remembered what had happened to him. "Ooohh," he moaned, "My head hurts. Halt, what's going on?"

Halt made Will lie his head back down. "Well, I was quite hoping you would know. Do you remember how your head got injured?"

Will thought for a moment, then said, "I heard something off the trail over that way," he gestured at the left side of the trail where Gilan had gone, "And I went to see what it was. I had found the place the sound was coming from, but right before I went around, someone came and hit me on the back of my head. I can't remember anything else after that, except waking up thinking I was drowning somewhere."

Gilan came back just then, saying, "I found tracks, but they led to a stream, and it looked as if someone had a raft there and left quite a while ago."

"Darn it, I was hoping to bash them on the head, just like they did to Will." He turned to Will, "Are you alright?"

Will smiled, "Yes, I think they only aimed to knock me out long enough to get away, not give me a lasting head injury that would addle my senses permanently."

"Okay, then, get up on Tug. We have to tell Crowley about this." The others agreed, and they all three mounted their horses and headed toward the Gathering Grounds.

A good five minutes after they had disappeared around a bend, a cloaked figure dropped down from a tree, looked around, and disappeared into the trees to find a better spot to spy on the arriving Rangers.

Gilan walked over to Blaze, thinking to maybe give her an apple, but then he saw something off in the trees. It looked a bit like a person trying to sneak away from his tent. He decided to follow them and see what they had been doing.

He crept up behind them and saw that they were wearing a Ranger cloak, and trying to string a longbow. They were much too small for a longbow, he thought, and wearing the cloak wrong. He saw them give up on the bow, and they went to his tent, depositing the bow near the doorway of it. They stole my spare! He thought. He considered confronting them right there, but then decided to follow them more.

The mystery person went to the tent of one of the Rangers who had a first-year apprentice, and snuck up right behind said apprentice, coming back holding a recurve bow. This person is good, Gilan thought. He witnessed them sneaking into three more first-year-housing tents, coming back from each with another piece of Ranger weaponry. The only thing they didn't steal was strikers. He followed them back to what must have been their camp.

It was in a tree, and it was basically five hammocks of varying sizes strung up near eachother, and Gilan assumed that one was for sleeping, a flatter looking one near the sleeping one would be for eating on, two larger ones looked to have supplies, and the last one was miniscule, and much lower down than the rest. When the person climbed into their 'camp', he saw what it was for. They used it to get across a space that would otherwise have been impossible to get through. It looked like the branches had been chopped off, and, looking around, Gilan saw a few freshly cut up branches lying around the base of the tree. Very clever, but now was not the time to admire the mystery person's wit.

"What do you think you're doing?" he called up to them. The person started, almost falling out of the tree.

"Where did you come from?!" they called back.

Gilan was surprised that the voice sounded female. "I spotted you trying to steal my spare longbow, and I saw you stealing all those other Ranger weapons you're hiding up there now. I think its time you explained to someone exactly what you think you're doing."

"Um, excuse me, sir, but I really should put everything down first." And they set everything down in the higher of the two larger hammocks. They jumped down from limb to limb of the tree with surprising speed and agility. Gilan knew he would have fallen out at least three times if he had attempted that. Their cloak's cowl had fallen off sometime during their mad rush to the ground, and Gilan found himself looking at a small girl with light gray-blue eyes, long, choppy reddish-blondish-brownish hair, and wearing Ranger clothes.

He gestured at her attire, "I assume you stole all of that." He said, making it sound more like a statement than a question. The girl cocked her head at him and smiled mischievously, not responding. "I'll take that as a yes," he said. "Exactly who are you and what are you doing stealing Rangers' belongings?"

The girl looked at him for a moment, considering something, then said, "My name's Mystery, Mist for short. You're… um… " she paused, thinking, "Gilan! You're Gilan, right?"

Gilan was amazed, "How do you know that?"

Mist shrugged, trying but failing to appear uninterested, "Oh, I've been watching the Gatherings long enough to figure out some peoples' names. Your friend snuck up on me earlier. I haven't figured out his name yet, but he must be good. I'm sorry if his head was too bad." She shrugged again.

"Wait, _you_ knocked Will out?" Gilan was suddenly mad at her for hurting his friend.

"I only meant to get him out of my way long enough to hide somewhere else, but then you and that old man came and woke him up. I had to wait even longer for you to leave, and I think I missed a few people coming in."

"You were spying on us? But your trail led to a stream. It looked like you had taken a raft and gone away."

"Does it look like that now?" Mist cocked her head and smiled again.

Gilan came to a decision. "You're coming with me." He said to the annoying girl, grabbing her elbow and dragging her behind him as he headed back toward the Gathering Grounds. She protested a lot, trying to pry her arm out of his grip. She managed to once, running away and seeming to disappear. Gilan looked around, trying to see where she was, when he saw long clumps of brownish hair drifting down from a tree nearby.

He looked up and saw Mist hacking away at her hair with a small knife, cutting it short. She finished, sheathed the knife, and vaulted through the branches to land in front of him. With her new haircut, she almost looked like a boy. Angrily, Gilan grabbed her arm again and dragged her the rest of the way there. This time, there were minimal protests, and she didn't try to get away anymore.

When they reached Gilan's tent, they found Will and Halt waiting there. Halt stepped forward, saying, "Who's this, Gilan?"

Without loosening his grip on her arm, Gilan answered, "This," he said, "is the person who knocked Will out. I caught her stealing Ranger weaponry from various peoples' tents."

Will raised an eyebrow, "Her?" he looked closer, "Oh, I see now." He said when he saw her feminine features. "What were you doing? And why did you hit me? That really hurt, you know."

Mist smiled apologetically at him, "Sorry, I don't like being snuck up on. At least I took you back to the trail, your horse was getting worried." She glanced at Tug when she said this, the slightest of smirks on her face.

Halt stepped into the conversation, "What were you doing hiding in the trees? And who are you anyway?"

"You really shouldn't ask her those two questions within five seconds of eachother," Gilan said, "She'll tell you her name and act like the other question was never asked."

Mist acted like Gilan hadn't said anything, "My name is Mystery, Mist for short. And what I was _doing,_" she glanced pointedly at Gilan, "was seeing who was coming to the Gathering this year."

"Now why would you do that?" asked Will.

Mist evaded him, "That, my friend, is a very good question." She paused and glanced around at them, then winced, "Gilan, you're cutting off the circulation in my arm." She complained. Gilan loosened his grip, but didn't let go. Mist glared at him for a moment, as if his not letting go were the most offending thing she had ever seen, then turned to Will. She could tell that he was the least likely of the group to be mean. "You haven't told me all your names yet,"

Will figured that there was no harm, considering that she had been caught, in letting her know who they were. He said, "Well, I'm Will, this is Halt, and you seem to already know Gilan."

Mist's eyes widened in genuine surprise and amazement. "You- You're _Will_? _Will_ _Treaty_ who helped make Skandia an ally and all that other stuff? And Halt? _The_ Halt who trained him and went with him on all those adventures? You- You're legends!"

"I don't care how famous we are," Halt said, "You are in serious trouble." He turned to Gilan, "Crowley needs to know about this, will you take her to see him?"

"Of course, Halt." He turned to leave, but stopped when Will asked for him to wait.

"I think I'll come, too." He said, walking up next to them.

Halt came up too. "Well if you're going, so am I. This girl's injured you one too many times." And the four of them made their way to the command tent.


	2. Chapter 2

**I just discovered how to do the author's notes! There isn't some special add-on, you have to write them **_**in the document!**_** For everyone who knew that already, yes, that was a stupid moment, and I apologize for being of inferior intelligence on that account.**

**To Savannah Silverstone,**** " ****I thought that Will was too lenient with the girl who just knocked him out.. Let me just give you a warning about accidentally Mary-sueing her since she is your avatar in that world, be careful!" ****Now that I think about it, you're right. I needed Mist to like Will better than the rest, so maybe I made him just a little too nice. I think I gave Halt all of Will's rightful anger, though, so she's got plenty of people mad at her. The whole Ranger Corps., for example, are mad at her because she was spying on them, Halt is extra mad because she knocked out his practically-son, Gilan's mad because she was trying to take his bow, and all those apprentices and their masters who she stole from are mad for rather obvious reasons. Also, the mysterious person who she's working for will be mad because she got herself caught. Plus, she's got **_**you**_** on her case now, and for pointing out my little mess-up, I'll give you the satisfaction of having Will be mad when they talk next. **

_**Mist**_**: Hey!**

_**Me**_**: What? I'm being nice to my first reviewer.**

_**Mist**_**: Well, you're being mean to me!**

_**Me**_**: That's different! You're a character!**

_**Mist**_**: Well, I'm still the one getting punished for something you wrote for me to do!**

_**Me**_**: But- ***_**Gets knocked out by random person**_*****

_**Mist**_**: Good riddance- ***_**also gets knocked out**_*****

_**Random Person**_**: Let's get on with the story now, shall we? ***_**gestures dramatically whilst music starts and then fades**_*****

Crowley had been trying for a very long time to get some bit of information out of Mist that she hadn't already told Halt, Gilan and Will, but she somehow managed to verbally lead him around in circles. He had told the three Rangers accompanying her to the command tent to go away, since she might not talk much with tons of people watching.

She had told him how she had gotten the Ranger supplies, by taking it from the first-year apprentices who weren't that good yet, but not why. When he asked why she wanted it, she would look at him oddly and say, "To _use_ it, why else?". When he asked what she was going to use it for, she would say, "Well, what do _you_ use it for?" and he didn't want her to know everything about what Rangers did all the time, so he didn't answer that one. Then she would start talking about how she absolutely admired Rangers, and they were so amazing, especially "that Will Treaty", until Crowley started asking her things again, when she would answer vaguely or with something that was common knowledge.

Soon Crowley realized that she had been preparing herself to get caught, and she had practiced these answers so that she could take up the time of the person asking. Once, she dropped a hint that insinuated that if someone _friendlier_ were to ask her things, she _just might_ answer more freely (she also put in something about Crowley being too old to talk to people). Crowley put that together with how much she said she admired Will, and figured that Will was about as friendly as you could get.

Crowley stood up to go get him, and Mist suddenly looked more interested. "Is something interesting going to happen now?" she asked.

Crowley looked down at her, "What, being interrogated by the Ranger Corps. Commandant isn't interesting enough for you?" he said sarcastically.

Mist didn't seem to catch the sarcasm. She said, with complete authenticity, "Well it was _kind of_ interesting, but I was hoping that since you were about to leave, something _exciting_ might happen."

"What made you think I was about to leave?" he was a little miffed that he was so apparently easy to read.

"Well, you were sitting down all comfortable in your chair while we were talking, and you don't seem like the kind of fellow who would get up out of it for no reason." Mist observed.

"That could be true," Crowley offered, trying to answer vaguely, to see if she could fall prey to her own tactic.

Mist smiled at him, "I knew it!" she looked proud that she was able to read a Ranger's motions so easily. "Were you getting someone?" she asked suddenly, "Is something important going on?"

Crowley wondered if she actually meant it, if she could miss something so obvious. "Oh, no, nothing important. Someone has just been caught spying on the Rangers' Gathering, the most secret place in Araluen, and I can't get them to tell me why. That's nothing important."

Mist looked confused for a moment, then realized he was talking about her. "_O-oh_," she said, "You mean you're going to talk to someone about _me_. Okay, I see now." She looked thoughtful, "Or were you getting someone better at talking to people to come ask me what I'm doing?" she asked herself.

Crowley left, deciding to ignore her last mind-reading statement. He found Will in his campsite, feeding Tug a handful of apples and glancing repeatedly at Halt's tent nearby, as if afraid Halt would berate him for feeding Tug too much. Some things learned in apprenticeship never fade away.

Crowley came up behind him silently, then cleared his throat loudly, causing Will to jump. "Ah! Crowley, will you not _do_ that!" he said, "You'll scare someone into dying sooner or later!"

"But it's so entertaining!" Crowley smiled, "And it keeps people on their toes." He became more serious. "I need you to do something for me, about our 'Mystery' friend."

Will raised an eyebrow, "What, she won't talk to you?" he asked.

Crowley shook his head, "No, she's talking all right, but she's telling me everything _but_ what I want to know."

"What do you want me to do? Why do you think she'll tell me anything?"

"While we were talking, she made a reference to how much she loves talking to 'friendly people', and then she told me how old and what a bad people person I was. She was also going on about how wonderful you are and how much she wishes she could talk to you sometime. It causes one to assume that if I let her talk to you, she might say something worth knowing."

Will nodded, "That makes sense. Still, though, after she tells me something, can I knock her out? My head still hurts a little."

Crowley smiled, "Of course, but it might not do to damage her head too much, so just give her a bit of a bonk, and that should be fine."

Will nodded and started toward the command tent.

When Will walked in, Mist sat up straighter, and looked a little nervous. She didn't like starting conversations, so she waited for him to say something.

"So," he started, "You wouldn't tell Crowley anything, eh?"

Mist fidgeted a little, "Well, no, he's not very fun to talk to. And he kept asking me questions that I'd already answered."

"Well, what I want to know is how you were watching Halt, Gilan and me the whole time, but your tracks led to a spot on a stream bed that looked like someone had left on a raft. And what were you doing behind that tree, anyway?"

Mist thought for a moment, then smiled, "Oh, _that_ raft. I _came_ on a raft, then shoved it back into the water. I walked backwards until I reached the trail, then climbed a tree to watch the people coming through. And I was behind that tree because I was looking for my knife. I had just noticed it was gone and went to see where I dropped it. I didn't expect you to come up behind me, if I had known who it was, well, I'd probably have just gone up the tree and gotten caught then. Of course, once I saw you were a Ranger, I had to bring you back to your horse, I've seen how attached Rangers are to their horses."

That all made sense to Will. It would also explain the metallic sound he had heard before she had knocked him out. "You know, my head still hurts where you hit me."

Mist smiled ruefully, "Oh, well, your horse got me back for that one."

"What? What did he do?"

Mist turned around and pulled back the back of her shirt collar with her right arm, exposing a bad horseshoe-shaped bruise above her left shoulder blade, right under the place where her back met her neck. There was a tiny bit of dried blood on it, but it looked like the cut had scabbed up. Will was impressed. "When did he do that?"

Mist turned back and smiled again, grimacing a little as well. "After I put you down by the trail, he was looking at me questioningly, so I told him what had happened. I think he actually understood me, because when my back was turned so I could climb a tree and get out of the sight of the trail, he picked up one of his hooves and kicked me with it. It hurts, but I can barely feel it unless I move my arm and shoulder."

Will just admired his horse more and more. "Well, I still want to hit you on the head, but maybe not as hard as I wanted to before. So, uh, why were you spying on the Gathering again?"

Mist could tell he had tried to say that casually so she would answer more freely, but decided not to point out how obvious he was. "My uncle wanted me to." She said simply.

Will was a little surprised that she had answered him so quickly, since she had been so vague with Crowley. "Who's your uncle? And why does he want you to spy on us?"

"Well, my uncle's name is Logan, and he was an apprentice Ranger, but he was disqualified in his second year." she said.

Will waited for her to go on, then realized that she was ignoring his second question, just how Gilan had told him she would after he had caught her. "Why does he want you to spy on us?" he asked again.

"He... wanted… something. I don't know what it was, though… revenge, maybe? Or maybe he wanted to join again? I don't really know. I tried to find out, but all I know was that he wanted something… important to him." Mist was well and truly uninformed on this account, so Will moved on.

"What did he ask you to do?" he asked. At least this would be something she had to know. "Why do you do what he asks, anyway?"

Mist decided to answer both questions instead of making him ask the second one another time. "He told me to find out everything I could without getting caught, and I did it because he's very convincing." She toyed with the thought of adding her description of his persuasiveness, then did, "And he's not convincing like a Courier, more like a Skandian, if you know what I mean."

"Oh," Will said, "So he's threatening."

"Exactly!" Mist said, "And I wanted to get caught so I could tell one of you Rangers about him so you would punish him so I wouldn't have to stay with him anymore and I could-" she stopped herself. She closed her eyes, breathed deeply for a few moments, then looked at Will again. "I don't suppose I can convince you to pretend you didn't hear that?" she said, stating it more than asking.

"No, you can't." he said.

"And," she said resignedly, "I suppose you'll expect me to explain it all to you now."

"Yes, I do expect to hear the explanation now."

Mist sighed, then launched into the explanation. She told him about how she was from a reasonably well off family, but she had lots of sisters and only one brother, who her parents gave all their attention to. When she was very little, she had pretended to run away repeatedly to see if they would notice her absence, but they never did. Then, once her Uncle Logan had visited, and she had seen some of his skills and she was almost as good as he was. Here Will cut in and said that that meant she was almost as good as a second year apprentice was, which was impressive being self-taught. She told him that that wasn't exactly how it had happened.

Her uncle had noticed her skill during his visit, and witnessed her pretend to run away twice. Before he had left, he had asked if she wanted to go with him, and he would show her how to get better at her already good Ranger-like abilities. She had agreed very enthusiastically and gone with him. At first, he had been nice and taught her new things until she became greatly adept at them, but then he started making her do things, and if she didn't do it right or didn't want to do it, he would punish her (after making her do whatever it was she hadn't wanted to do). Her first Ranger-related task had been last year, when he made her sneak into the Gathering and take something from one of the apprentice's tents. She had taken a bronze oakleaf, which she hadn't known the importance of, and she had been holding her cloak closed with it ever since. At this point, she showed it to Will. She had overheard tons of important information, and he had told her to come back this year and get some Ranger gear, plus more information.

She had, but this time, she had plans of her own. She had long ago decided that at the first opportunity, she would get away from her uncle, and she knew that if the Rangers found out about him wanting to spy on them, they would punish him or at least put him in prison, where she wouldn't have to stay with him anymore. She hadn't planned on getting caught when she did, or by Gilan, but now was as good as any. Her conclusive statement was, "Oh, and I was taking the weapons because I wanted to impress whoever it was that caught me. While you were unconscious, I, er, _borrowed_ your strikers, too. Here, you can have them back now. They're too big for my hands." And she produced Will's strikers and handed them to him.

Will took them absentmindedly, still digesting her story. It surprised him how nice and _unscarred_ she seemed by her brutal past. There was one point he thought she could have elaborated more on, though. "That's… wow." He said to acknowledge her trials, then asked, "You say your uncle punished you, how exactly did he do it?"

Mist grimaced at the memory alone. "He- he had three punishments. One was for not doing it right, one was for not wanting to, and one was for both. When I didn't want to, he would take his knife and slowly cut through the skin right here." She rolled up her right pant leg and showed him a huge scar that went in a straight line on the back of her calf. "Then he would make me climb this really, really spiky tree and stay there for a night and a day. When I did something wrong, he wouldn't let me eat or drink until I could do something really hard, like swim across a river in ten seconds or hold two baskets of rocks above my head for three hours without moving. When I both didn't want to _and_ didn't do it right, he gave me a cut here," she showed another perfectly straight scar on her left upper arm, "And withheld my food and water until I could do something like drag a fully grown tree uphill, then chop it up for firewood and carry it all to his house. Then I would have to sleep outside for two nights after completing it." Her face was now completely blank, she was lost in unpleasant memories. She stared into the middle ground for a very long time.

Will had forgotten his desire to hit her on the head a while ago, and left the command tent to tell Crowley what he knew. He had decided that he liked Mist, she was a very friendly girl and didn't deserve such a terribly harsh past. This uncle of hers would be paying for more than making someone spy on the Rangers, he promised himself.

**Okay, just so everyone knows, this is **_**after**_** Will marries Alyss, so when he says he likes Mist, he doesn't mean like THAT. He means she's very nice, and that's it. My thanks are going to ****Crazy-random-reader of hogwart****for being my first positive reviewer, and that's about all! **

**PS, to all you critics saying she's not scarred enough by her past because she acts so friendly: she acts so friendly **_**because**_** of her past. She feels like she has to do something to counter the terrible-ness, so she decides to make other people's lives better by being nice to people (not like her uncle let her meet many people, anyway, for her it was more of a hypothetical promise for the future)**

**Oh, and any reviews would be welcome. Questions, comments, criticisms, compliments, praises, pizzas, or pies would also be nice.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hi, guys! Sorry I couldn't update in like a billion years, first I lost my plot bunny, then Microsoft Word messed up, then I got grounded then I still had to- Actually, I have no excuse. Readers have full permission to call me evil now, sorry for making you wait so long.**

The next day, Will found Mist arguing with Halt and Crowley outside the command tent. He approached behind them silently, listening in on what they were saying.

Halt was saying, "Of course you can't! You would get away at the first chance."

Mist was confused, "But you're Rangers. You're too good at that kind of stuff to let that happen."

"Halt has a point," Crowley said, "You have proven that you have certain skills. You spied on us without being noticed, you surprised Will, you got away from Gilan, and, as Gilan says, you can disappear up a tree faster than Halt can shoot an arrow."

Halt looked offended, "I can shoot faster than some girl can climb a tree!"

"I'm sure you can, Halt." Crowley said offhandedly. "The point is, we can't let her go."

Will stepped in, asking, "So what is it you're talking about?" Mist wasn't used to the way Rangers could seemingly pop out of nowhere, and she jumped, stifling a shriek of alarm.

Crowley turned to him, "Mist wants to go get her things from her camp, but we think she would get away if we let her."

Mist, recovering from her shock at Will's sudden appearance, looked at him with pleading eyes, "I won't, I promise! Besides, why would I want to escape, anyway?"

"Because you're working for an enemy, and you need to get back to report." Halt said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. He seemed very annoyed that everyone hadn't noticed this yet. "She already got away from Gilan, who's to say she won't get away from whoever we send to guard her?"

Will considered this for a moment; Mist hadn't been lying when she told him her story, but it was possible that she had left out some part where she agreed to work for an enemy. Then again, Halt was probably just still mad at her for spying on the Gathering and wanted everyone else to be mad, too. It was not likely that Mist would work for someone as terrible as she said her uncle was, and he had no doubt that everything she had said about him was true. She had the scars to prove it, and she didn't seem to have the ability to lie. There was one surefire way to find out if she wanted to escape, especially with her inability to lie.

"Mist," he said seriously, "Do you want to get away from us?"

Her eyes flicked around quickly before slowly answering, "At the moment, no." She looked away, eyes down, like she was hiding something.

Halt gestured at her, "See? She doesn't want to get away now, she wants to wait until the right moment to surprise us or something."

"What do you mean, at the moment?" Crowley inquired.

"I mean that right now I don't want to, but it might be different in the future after some unspecified event."

Will rolled his eyes at her. "Okay, but will you try to get away on the way to or from your camp? You're just going to make people angrier if you keep answering questions vaguely."

Mist looked up, thinking, and subconsciously rubbed her cloak pin. "I suppose I wouldn't run away on the way to the camp. I might try to race back here, though, would that count as running away?"

"Racing isn't running away, as long as you stop once you've gotten wherever you're racing to, and you don't just wait until you're out of your opponent's sight and go in a completely different direction."

"Okay, then. Who's coming with me?" Mist started slowly skipping backwards in the direction of her camp, waiting for one of the Rangers to follow. Will decided that Halt would most likely just shoot Mist once they were out of sight, and Crowley wasn't even thinking about going with, so he caught up with her and followed her to her camp.

About halfway there, Mist suddenly gasped and ran off. She came up to a tree and started poking around in the roots. Will looked over curiously, "What are you doing?" she shushed him and kept looking around before standing up with a disappointed look.

"It wasn't there." She said to herself.

"What wasn't there?" Will asked.

Mist looked up at him as if only just remembering he was there, "Nothing, nothing." She said and began walking toward her campsite again.

Will gave her an odd look before following. When they reached the tree she had set up in, he looked up at her hammocks. _Impressive_, he thought. Aloud, he said, "So, why did you do that in a tree?"

Mist, who had just started to climb, looked down, "I like to be unseen, and nobody ever looks up. There was this bird watcher once, though… nevermind." And she kept going up until she reached her little setup. She started getting all her things into small packs, then tied them all at the end of a long rope and lowered them to the ground. She followed right behind them.

When she got down, she grabbed a pack and handed it to Will, "This has the weapons that I… borrowed." He accepted it and swung it over a shoulder.

Once they got back to the command tent, Mist asked Will, "So… if I'm supposed to stay here, where do I sleep?"

Will stopped walking, "I'll go ask somebody." And he left to go find Crowley or someone. Mist sat on the ground and waited. After a few minutes, she took out her knife and started sharpening it until someone walked up behind her and cleared his throat. She jumped and turned around to see some Ranger who she hadn't met so far.

"Do all Rangers do that?" she asked curiously.

"Do what?" the Ranger said.

"You know, pop up behind people suddenly and scare them half to death."

He gave her an odd look, "Nevermind that. I'm supposed to show you where you're supposed to sleep. Follow me."

Mist followed him to an empty campsite, where she promptly began setting up a tent of sorts, improvised using her hammocks. The Ranger just kind of stood back and watched, most likely to keep her from escaping.

She got uncomfortable with his silent gaze after a minute, so she tried to start a conversation, "Sp, uh, what's your name?"

When the Ranger didn't respond, Mist sighed. This was going to be a long day.

**Sorry for the short chapter, I'm running out of creative juice. If someone could give me ideas, I would be very happy. As always, REVIEW!**


	4. Chapter 4

**I'd like to thank everyone who reviewed! I know every author says this, but you guys are the ones keeping this story going! It wouldn't still exist if not for you!**

**Mist: Um, Lianne, you're forgetting something important.**

**Me: What?**

**Mist: Disclaimer? Does that ring a bell? No? Oh, fine then. Will! Come tell Lianne about the copyright on your life!**

**Will: My life is copyrighted? What? Who owns me?**

**Mist: *Sighs*** **I guess I'll do it. Lianne doesn't own anything but me. Will belongs to John Flanagan, as does Halt, Crowley, the Rangers, and anything Ranger's Apprentice in general, as much as Lianne hates to admit it.**

**Me: LIAR!**

**Mist: Admit it, that little money jar under your bed will never be able to buy the copyright.**

**Me: A girl can dream . . .**

**Will: I STILL DON'T KNOW WHAT'S GOING ON!**

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Mist was sulking in her little tent. No one would let her do anything! She was so _bored_ that she was actually considering getting away from the Ranger who was monitoring her. He hadn't told her his name, only given her glares and odd looks and stopped her from doing anything remotely interesting. What was the harm in doing target practice with the apprentices? Apparently she would be distracting since she was a girl. But she had cut her hair and had neutral features, she could convince them she was a boy! But the Ranger had had none of it. Finally, she had given up on him and gone into her tent to try sleeping, but that failed too.

She heard footsteps approaching, and thought maybe the Ranger had changed his mind and was coming to tell her she could practice with the apprentices. But no, these were light and hurried footsteps, those of a boy. A head with black hair and blue eyes popped into her tent, "Hi,"

"Hi," Mist replied, "What are you doing?"

"I had a minute of free time, and I came to say that you're pretty good, but I saw you."

"Saw me what?" Mist asked guardedly.

"Taking my saxe knife. I let you get away though, 'cause I knew you'd get caught." The boy grinned lopsidedly, the right side of his smile bigger than the other.

"And why did you come in here to tell me that?"

"I wanted to say hi, and, um, not to be rude, but, um, are you a boy or a girl?" He blushed and looked away in embarrassment.

"I'm a girl. The name's Mystery, call me Mist. And you?"

"Oh," he looked kind of surprised, "Well, uh, my name's Christopher, but everyone calls me Chris."

"Nice to meet you, Chris. Why did you want to meet me again? I'm a thief. Hardly good material for a Ranger's apprentice to try making friends with." Mist crossed her arms.

"So? I used to be a thief." Chris looked like he thought he had said too much, "Uh, nevermind. D'you want to go . . . I dunno, do target practice?"

Mist decided to accept, what else could she do besides sit around and stare at her tent walls? "Sure. I'll bet I'm better with a bow than you are."

"You are _on_." the boy answered. As they walked out, Chris and the Ranger nodded mysteriously at eachother, before Chris led her to an archery range.

He pulled out his recurve bow and an arrow and handed it to her, "Ladies first," he said with a smirk.

Mist snatched the items out of his hands and faced the targets, aiming for the second closest one. She let it fly, and it hit the center.

Chris was suitably impressed when he took his bow back, but hid it under a mischievous expression, "That was fine, but I'll show you how it's done." He drew an arrow, aimed, and fired, hitting just outside the center of the next target down from the one Mist had hit.

"That wasn't the worst shot I've ever seen," Mist said, smirking right back at him.

Chris stuck his tongue out at her, "Well, I'll bet you don't know how to do a throwing knife."

"Why don't you give a demonstration? I'm a fast learner," Mist taunted. Of course, she already did know how, she just wanted to show off.

"Watch closely," Chris pulled out his throwing knife and in a flash it was right next to Mist's arrow, "If you want a try, go and get it." he gestured for her to go ahead.

Mist walked the distance to the first target, then passed it and went to the second one down. She yanked Chris's arrow out of the second one, then collected hers and the knife on the way back. When she reached him she handed him the two arrows, "Now you watch closely," she said before throwing his knife. It hit the second target, in exactly the same spot that the boy's arrow had been. "And try to guess where I was aiming."

"It makes me feel better to think you were aiming for the center, like people are supposed to on targets."

"I actually was," Mist said honestly. She had only said the part about guessing where she had aimed because she had thought of it on the spot and thought it made her sound cooler.

"Right. Enough with aiming stuff, are you any good at strategizing? You could come do the lesson thing with me and the other apprentices." He offered.

Mist was about to accept when a familiar voice said, "Christopher, what are you doing?"

Chris cringed, "Uh, target practice?"

The Ranger who the voice belonged to walked up to them, "I meant, what are you doing hanging around _her_?"

"Lay off it, Gilan, we're just . . . uh, well," He leaned in and whispered something to the Ranger.

Gilan raised an eyebrow, "Oh, really? Well I can't stop you, then. Carry on. I've got my eye on you, though."

Mist was understandably surprised. What could Chris have said to get _Gilan_ off her tail? She must have shown it, because when Chris saw her expression his face colored slightly and he looked away, "Um, on second thought, I think its lunchtime. Do you want to go, um, eat or something?"

Mist gave him an odd look, "Okay, where?"

"Follow me," Chris brought her to a long table that a few people were sitting at, and sat them both down at the end that was mostly deserted. He paused, then stood back up, "Oh, I forgot about getting food. Wait here," and he left.

Mist looked at the Rangers who were sitting at other places at the table. Two seemed to be looking over a stack of official-looking documents, one was talking to a much younger boy, most likely an apprentice, another was carving something into a block of wood, and there were about five others who were all eating stuff.

Chris came back with two bowls of stew and sat down across from her.

"Thanks," Mist said as she took hers. It was cooled down to a little less than the right temperature, and they ate it in relative silence.

Mist felt awkward when she finished, so she tried to start a conversation, "So . . . who's apprentice are you?"

"You really want to know?"

"Sure. You're not Will Treaty's, are you?"

"What? No. He's been meaning to get an apprentice, but it's not me. I'm with Gilan, actually."

* * *

**Aaaaaaaaaaaaaand, I hope this chapter wasn't too short or too forced, my brain ran out of thought juice when I took a test for a homeschool curriculum I'm trying out . . . Oh, dang, I just realised that I could have stuck this and the last chapter together and it still would have been short. The author's notes are even longer than the actual chapter! At least you amazing readers got an early update, I guess.**

**The only reason I stopped it there is that I can only seem to write Mist's reaction as her memory, not with her actually reacting. **

**So, I hope you liked Gilan's apprentice! His original name was Mark, but then I realised that that would give me two 'M' name characters. If you want to know what he looks like, get your mental picture of Will from book 1, give him paler skin, black hair, and ice blue eyes, tweak him to have a different face if you want, and that should be close enough.**

**I'd like to thank all you lovely reviewers, followers, and favoriters! I love you!**

**Please review! Comments, questions, criticisms, praises, pizzas or pies are always welcome. ]**

**Random fact: To the few people who did not know this already, pizzas are actually pies.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Aloha, my lovely readers! I loved the response I got for Chris, and I may or may not include some romance in later chapters. I already have a pairing name for them, Chrystery (Chris crossed with Mystery), so I guess it's inevitable now. :p**

* * *

The Gathering was ending tomorrow. Mist didn't know what the Rangers were going to do with her then, but she had a feeling she wouldn't like it too much. She had made friends with Chris the few days he had been there, but he and Gilan had had to leave early, something going on in their fief, she guessed. After that, she had found Will and gotten to know him. She liked him even better than she had when she had heard the stories about him going on adventures and saving people and, well, being amazing in general. She had steered clear of Halt whenever possible and avoided Crowley as much as she could. Them being Rangers, though, made this very difficult. Luckily for her, neither of them wanted to be near her any more than she wanted to be near them.

She was packing a little 'escape bag' just in case, when she heard someone approaching. It was almost dinner time, and she thought it might be Will inviting her to eat with him like he had the day before. She popped out of her tent to see one of the random Rangers that had been guarding her earlier.

"You need to see Crowley," he stated and walked away toward the command tent. Mist followed him until they reached the head Ranger, standing in front of, you guessed it, the command tent.

"Mystery," Crowley said when she got close enough, "I have some things to tell you." he gestured for her to follow him into the tent.

When she went in, they sat down facing eachother, like they had when she'd first been caught. "So, what are we talking about?"

"I have decided what you will do when the Gathering ends. Because you have already confessed to spying on the Rangers and working with an enemy, you will be tried in a court to determine your sentence."

Mist was shocked, but quickly regained her composure. "Fine." she said, already planning what she would do now.

"Really?" Crowley looked like he had expected more resistance. "You're just going along with it?"

"Yes. Like I said, you Rangers are too good to get the better of."

"Well, then." he still seemed a little suspicious, though. "You need to pack up your things and be ready to leave early tomorrow morning."

"One question," Mist said before leaving, "What was with Chris? He was the only person my age who I was allowed to talk to, and he somehow got everyone to leave us alone whenever we were out. He even got Gilan off my tail. You had something to do with that, right?"

"Christopher was judging your skill at . . . everything. He said that you were about even with him in most areas, and better in some. He wouldn't stop bugging us until we let him do something with you, so we decided to have him gather information while we were at it."

"I knew it," Mist said quietly to herself. She looked back at Crowley as she stood up, "I'll go, uh, pack, then." she left before he could say anything else.

That night, a small shadow could be seen stealing out of the back of a tent. It slithered across the ground, moving with the shadows and looking around often to be sure it hadn't been spotted. Mist had to go painfully slow, because she knew that she couldn't hope to sneak past everyone as quickly as she wanted to, and remain unseen. She frequently paused, and stayed very far from any source of light.

Hours later, dawn was approaching, and Mist had finally managed to get into the cover of the trees. She got faster and less careful the farther she got, until finally she felt she was at a safe enough distance to stop and catch her breath. She then looked around and declared herself officially one of the stupidest people alive. She was hopelessly lost! And she had been so focused on getting away, that she hadn't even thought about remembering her trail! Stupid!

Mist brought up a pretend voice in her head that she used as an excuse to talk to herself when she was in bad situations. She had it say:

_What are you going to do now, Mist? You've gotten yourself into quite the predicament this time._

"I don't know," she said. "What would a Ranger do in this situation?" it was a question she asked herself when she needed a clever solution to something.

_A Ranger wouldn't be in this situation. They never get lost._

"You don't know that. Actually, I don't think they ever do get lost . . . Say an apprentice Ranger, then. What would . . . Chris do?"

_Chris would backtrack until he got to somewhere he recognised. Oh, wait, you can't backtrack, because you wanted to get _away_ from the Gathering and not toward it._

"You're no help. I should get somewhere high and look at the surrounding terrain, that at least _sounds_ like something sensible to do." Mist contemplated where she should go that was high enough.

_Maybe, and this is just going waay out on a limb, you should climb a tree?_

"Shut up, I don't need to talk to myself anymore." her mind's voice complied. She looked around. There were plenty of trees to climb, but none that struck her as sufficiently tall for her needs. After wandering a little ways to her left, she spotted the perfect one. It was a pine, thick trunked and sturdy, which towered over its deciduous brothers.

She had a little trouble getting up at the very base of it, but once she reached the part where more branches were her progress improved and she reached the very top quickly. A scan of the general area gave up little to no information, but a closer look showed her more details. A small, slightly hidden trail wound through the trees a little ways away. An even closer examination and she thought she saw someone or something moving down the trail.

She vaulted down to the ground in her usual reckless manner, gaining a few new scrapes and bruises while she was at it, and set off to see what it was going down the path. When she came into view she paused in recognition, causing an unnatural rustle of leaves. The familiar form stiffened slightly before turning and looking right at her.

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**And so ends yet another painfully short chapter! I think they'll all be about this short from here on out, anyway, so just giving you a fair warning. If that was a terrible cliffhanger, let me just say that it was a hurried one on one of my bad writing days, and I'm really not good at doing cliffies on a good day anyway.**

**Ich liebe dich alle, meine liebe Leserinnen und Leser! (Put that in Google Translate, see what you get :) )**

**Do review! Reviews are my brain food! Questions, comments, criticisms, concerns, praises, pizzas, or pies are all welcome.**


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